Saudi Arabia always does everything at full blast. Over the past two years it has set itself several ambitious tasks, which has led to a wave of reforms aimed at improving the quality of its citizens’ life in particular.
1. The desire to be the first in everything seeps into all the spheres of life of the Kingdom population that nowadays is famous for breaking a number of world records (for instance, in 2018 the world’s largest rubber water park was established in Al Khobar).
2. In addition to it, Saudi Arabia is the only state in the world, which was named after the ruling dynasty of Saud and which is one of the hottest and anhydrous places in Asia.
3. King Khalid International Airport (Riyadh) is considered to be one of the largest in the world with the area of about 225 square kilometers and capacity of about 19 million people per year.
4. The Hajj Terminal of the airport named after Abdulaziz (Jeddah) is the largest indoor facility in the world. It covers the area of about 1,5 square kilometers. It was built solely to serve pilgrims arriving for Hajj every year from all over the world.
5. King Fahd’s Fountain (Jeddah) is considered to be the highest fountain of the planet: its jets reach the height of up to 312 meters, and the total mass of water, which is constantly "hanging" over the fountain, is about 18.8 tons.
6. Jeddah Tower, earlier known as Kingdom Tower or Mile-High Tower, is a project of one of the highest buildings in the world. It is being built 32 kilometers to the North of Jeddah. This project has become the first in the world, the height of which is more than 1 kilometer.
According to preliminary estimates, the skyscraper will cost about 75 billion rials (20 billion dollars). In order to realize the scale, compare: the cost of building the Burj Khalifa skyscraper is 1.5 billion dollars.
It is supposed that the tower will become the centre of the new Kingdom Centre district with the population of about 80 thousand people upon completion of the construction works. Once the building is ready, it will be the highest in the world and the first one with the height of more than kilometer. The first project of the building was to be on mile high, however, after analyzing the soil on site, the height was reduced to one kilometer.
The architect of the building is architectural bureau of Adrian Smith; the initiator of the whole project is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the richest people in the Middle East and a nephew of the King of Saudi Arabia. Al-Waleed is the President of the Kingdom Holding Company, one of the largest corporations in the world. Jeddah Economic Company was established to finance the construction.
Since the beginning of the year 2018 the construction of the tower has been halted for financial reasons, so the estimated date of completion is not yet known.
7. However it is not enough for Saudi Arabia: they have been working on the construction of the longest, highest and fastest rollercoaster in the world! According to Gulf News, Six Flags, which is a well-known theme park operator from the United States, the rollercoaster is among the 12 record rides that will be launched in Qiddiya, the upcoming mega theme park of Saudi Arabia. It is expected that it will be the most unique Six Flags theme park that has ever been built.
To date, it is known that the park will include 28 large rides, divided into six theme zones, including the Thrill city, Twilight Gardens, Valley of Destiny and others. In the Thrill City two of the main record rides of the park will be placed, one of which is the highest and fastest rollercoaster in the world.
8. Over the past two years, Saudi Arabia has been working hard to develop its own entertainment, arts, culture and heritage sectors in an effort to provide its citizens with more opportunities for entertainment at home, as well as more employment opportunities for Saudi youth. Qiddiya is a part of Kingdom efforts to develop its own entertainment sector in the accordance with the goals of the Vision 2030 that is the national strategy to diversify Saudi Arabia's current oil economy. The Kingdom reportedly seeks to recover about 30 billion dollars annually spent on tourism and entertainment by Saudi Arabs beyond the Kingdom.
Ilmira Gafiyatullina